Historic Square

Brief Information

The Historical Square stands on the site of the factory from which Yekaterinburg began in 1723. For this reason, the space reads not as an ordinary urban square, but as a place where the city’s industrial foundation was transformed into a museum and memorial zone. It was opened in 1973 for Yekaterinburg’s 250th anniversary; before that, during the reconstruction of 1964-1973, most of the factory buildings were demolished, while the surviving structures were adapted as museums.

The layout emphasizes the site’s former role. A museum zone with preserved buildings, gates, and fragments of fencing was arranged on the left bank of the Iset, while the memorial zone was placed on the right bank. The factory did not disappear completely: its traces remain in the dam, the old buildings, the tower, and the fences. These are what explain why the square is connected not only with recreation, but also with the beginning of the city.

What to Notice First

It is worth comparing several details where the former factory territory is physically visible. The dam of the city pond is a preserved monument of hydraulic engineering; in the 1970s it was widened, faced with granite, and supplemented with bas-reliefs and sculptures connected with the skills of Ural metallurgists. This later memorial shell was placed over an engineering structure without which the factory site cannot be understood.

The water tower shows another type of trace: its lower hexagonal section is built from granite blocks, the upper section is made of logs, and an external spiral metal staircase leads to the upper tier. At the gates and fences, one can see the transition from a closed industrial territory to an open square: after reconstruction, fragments of walls and four gates were preserved. The southeastern gates are especially revealing: they stand diagonally to the intersection, have two stone wicket gates, a passage between them, and a gas lantern on a wrought-iron stand.